Chicano activist Bobby Lee Verdugo dies at 69

Social media tributes poured in Saturday for longtime activist Bobby Lee Verdugo, one of the leaders of the 1968 East Los Angeles high school walkouts, who died Friday. The Associated Press reported he was 69.

Bobby Lee Verdugo, one of the leaders of the 1968 East Los Angeles high school walkout to protest discrimination and dropout rates among Mexican American students, which triggered a movement across the American Southwest, died Friday. He was 69 https://t.co/TsJ6RUyrgRpic.twitter.com/xBnwzM5jiU

Verdugo’s death was announced on Facebook by his daughter Monica Verdugo, who said her father died peacefully surrounded by his wife, Yoli Ríos, and his family. No cause of death was given.

In 1968, Verdugo and Ríos were both students at Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights when they and other students at three other Eastside campuses –Wilson, Roosevelt and Garfield –helped organize a peaceful walkout of schools in an effort to bring educational reform.

Known to friends for his nickname Chicano King, Verdugo was featured in the 1996 PBS documentary “Chicano! – The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.”

In the 2006 HBO film “Walkout,” Verdugo was portrayed by actor Efrén Ramírez.

Bobby Lee Verdugo, one of the leaders of the 1968 East LA School Walkouts, died today. His efforts helped spark the Chicano Movement and ed reforms for Mexican American. My 2018 story on him here: https://t.co/al32Ro8L12pic.twitter.com/WMLZxqx4tu

Both Verdugo and Ríos were sought-out speakers and despite his declining health, Verdugo made several public appearances in 2018, for the 50th anniversary of the walkouts or blowouts, as the protest was also known.

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Boyle Heights Beat is a bilingual community newspaper produced by its youth "por y para la comunidad". The newspaper and its sister website serve an immigrant neighborhood in East Los Angeles of just under 100,000. Read more about our team